How far would you go to save someone you love?/How can people act the way they do?

That's the question that Heavy Rain asks you. The game is not so much a game, but more an interactive film, I would say, and it relies completely on the idea of choices: everything you do is fallible. Anything can go wrong. Any or all of the four playable characters can die. And the game will not coddle you and go, "it's okay, just load your last save;" that character is dead and gone, and the story carries on without him or her. It is the single darkest game ever, and it is brilliant - it could be a movie, but the choice it forces you to make are much more intriguing. I like to think that, in the position of the characters, I would do the right thing, but it's hard to know for certain, especially with some of the shit they throw at you.

Furthermore, you BECOME your characters. For example, at the very start of the game, you wake up as Ethan Mars, father of two. Your wife is out with the kids, and you have to get ready for the day. You have to shower. You have to shave. You have to brush your teeth. You actively do these things, by moving the controller or the right stick. You are not thrust into the characters - you are introduced to them at their core, as real people. You empathize. You hope. You fear. You feel.

The whole game (which revolves around a slow-moving, noir murder mystery) doesn't try to make you feel for these characters - you just do, because they are so real. This is the way games should be. This is the future of the medium. Feelings, not just interaction. Bravo, David Cage; you took a risk, and it paid off, completely.

In other news, I got the newest Muse album, The Resistance - I'd never given them a shot, before, but I've found that I really like them. I also got the Heavy Rain Original Soundtrack and the Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack, but I've yet to listen to them (other than in-game, for Heavy Rain, of course).

Why are people cruel? How can people treat each other the way they do? Seriously? How can people be so... selfish, so greedy, so... wrong? Is that the way people are supposed to be? Are we the exception, not the rule? I feel like it, sometimes. People deceive, they lie, they put on fake fucking masks to look all pretty and perfect in front of others, just so we won't see their flaws. Their mistakes. Their inner truths. How can someone be so horrible to you at one point, but act perfect and kind and polite and good just because someone they want to respect them is around? Why aren't people honest with me? Why aren't they honest with you, all of you? Why aren't they honest with themselves? Why are people so dark and so mean and so... cruel is the only word that comes to mind. I don't understand people. Most of the time, I would give damn near anything to get why people do what they do, so I could solve problems and save people and do what's right. The rest of the time, I don't want to know at all, because I'm afraid I'll fall into them and their ways. After all, like Friedrich Nietzsche said: "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

Sleep well.